


Met an Old Friend for the First Time

by JellyCream_Jam



Category: Five Nights at Freddy's
Genre: (the true horror), Alienation, Child Death, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Feelings of Inadequacy, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Implied Child Death, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Inspired by Dreams, Mention of Student Loans, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Not Canon Compliant, One Shot, Other, POV First Person, Past Character Death, Unclear Character Identity, Vague Character Identity, implied childhood friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-17
Updated: 2019-12-17
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:28:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21828226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JellyCream_Jam/pseuds/JellyCream_Jam
Summary: This was heavily inspired by a dream I had this morning, and I wanted to do something with it before I could possibly forget about it.It stuck with me because of the range of emotions it made me feel.It's written in Charlie's point of view, but her name's mentioned only one single time, so I guess it could pass as a self- insert or reader insert.
Relationships: Charlotte "Charlie" Emily & Bonnie (Five Nights at Freddy's), Charlotte "Charlie" Emily & Chica (Five Nights at Freddy's), Charlotte "Charlie" Emily & Foxy (Five Nights at Freddy's), Charlotte "Charlie" Emily & Freddy Fazbear
Kudos: 11





	Met an Old Friend for the First Time

I’m like, at the ripe old age of 27. Really fresh out of college. Everybody around me acts as if this was a huge deal that will make me victorious or something, but let’s be real: Diplomas don’t mean as much now as they meant a decade or two ago. I know going to college is a huge thing for few, and I should be proud I graduated, but at the same time I feel kind of cheated out of five years of my life. Not that I could express that to anyone, people here would probably just say I’m a whiny millennial who complains about everything. Ugh.

But I digress.

There was some ‘post-graduation paperwork’ I had returned to the campus to sort out. Nothing much, just bureaucracy. It took a little longer than expected though, so I missed my bus and was stuck at the bus stop for a while, until the next bus home would pass by. Possibly hours. Unbelievable.

After some time I hadn’t counted on the clock—because I was lost in the depth of my own thoughts, sitting on the bench waiting, I got approached by a fellow former classmate who has also graduated… I’ll be honest, I was pretty bad with names and sometimes took longer to attribute names and faces, save for very few. But I think that one was Jessica—I _think_ because… how am I supposed to say _“what’s your name again?”_ when we’ve been studying for like five years now??? No, that’s too awkward! So I just hoped ‘Jessica’ was right. If not, then it was great meeting you all..

“Hey there!” She greeted me, grinning widely. “Been a while since last time I saw you at that bench!” That’s always where I’d be to take my bus home after classes.

“Y- yeah. Just had some small paperwork to sort out. But now it’s all good.”

“Mhm, same with me and a couple others.” She approached the bench but didn’t sit down. In fact, she looked ready for something, instead of waiting for a bus. She was just finishing putting her phone in her purse. “Hey. I know you’re waiting for your bus, but next one’s gonna take quite a while now.”

“Yeah no kidding. The fact they don’t take their own schedule seriously is frustrating at best.” Our town was still a bit small, so there was only one bus company for the entire town, and since it had no competition, it didn’t have that pressure of needing to offer better service than a rival. They’ve been on local newspapers and even on local TV news once due to their lackluster performance. Funny thing is that recently the CEO ‘didn’t like the news about them’ and stated that neither he nor his workers would tell anything to anyone about what goes on in their company—which, by the way, I’m pretty sure is illegal, so, too bad man. Maybe if you were more responsible… My bus specifically is late almost always. Sometimes even 45 minutes late.

Which is why waiting is insufferable—I was sure I’d have to wait longer than the given time.

“Listen up-“ My friend told me, prompting me to pull myself back from thoughts of my bus-bound routine and focus back on her. “I was talking to one of our pals on the phone, and he said someone, I think his grandpa, wanted to show him something and he invited some of us to join him!”

I raise a brow. “Nobody told me anything at all.” Who even was he? We had a lot of male classmates, yet for some reason it just didn’t cross me to ask who of them exactly it was.

“Yeah he just told me, then I saw you there. Why don’t you join us? I’m sure he won’t mind!”

“Uhh, I dunno—“ I felt a little inadequate because technically I hadn’t been invited, which I didn’t take personally. Dude probably just would rather invite his closer friends, and I always was more doing my own. I don’t blame him if he didn’t feel close enough with me.

“Come _oooon_!” She insisted a little. “It’ll be okay! Probably better than sitting here for two hours for a bus, don’t you think?” Yeah, she had a point there. The bus stop was kind of empty, and the sun had nearly set—I was always a little scared of being stuck at the bus stop for too long by myself. It can be dangerous.

“O- okay.” I relented. “But I can’t miss this bus.”

“I’m sure we’ll be done before it even arrives.”

Honestly? _Fair._

I followed my buddy over to where a small group of people I recognize mostly by face that we studied together on and off. We greeted each other and my inviter explained she found me at the bus stop stuck, and everybody seemed perfectly fine with me joining.

We went together in a car that belonged to someone in the group. I had a seat in the back. Uneventful but okay ride.

The place was… hard to describe.

It felt kind of vague. But still solid.

It was HUGE. Like a mansion or manor. While also resembling a complex. It had an okay design, but it felt like whoever architect was behind it, didn’t quite know what the heck they wanted.

Inside wasn’t different. Large. Lots of places and rooms. Some parts had a slight Victorian vibe to the design. Others seemed more minimalist.

I just tagged along with the group, until a senior came up to us. Seemed he was indeed the grandfather of someone in the group. A nice gentleman. He shook each of us’ hand, then kinda toured us around. Once more I just tagged along—honestly low-key worried that if I got too far from the group I wouldn’t find my way around given how stupidly big this place was.

Eventually we were toured into a part of the house that had some slightly bare rooms, separated by long halls and doors among them. This also seemed to be a less used part of the house. The senior told us he uses these rooms as a makeshift workshop, and the reason they look bare is because he’s been working solely on one thing for quite a while now.

Meanwhile I fumbled a bit with my phone, trying to take it from my pocket because I wanted to check the clock—just wanted to see how much left I had for my bus.

That’s when I softly brush-bumped my side into something or someone—I immediately looked back up thinking I had accidentally bumped into ‘Jessica’ or someone else in the group while looking at my phone.

Nope.

A yellow face with a beak towered over me by a ridiculous margin—and I was considered kind of tall, almost 5’8’’. Yet it seems I hit just beneath the bird’s shoulder length.

It didn’t move, didn’t do anything at all. It was like a statue. Nothing to hint it being alive. Its eyes were glassy, looking at nothing.

Needless to say I was kind of startled, having expected to look up at ‘Jessica’ or another friend and seeing that instead. _Their size was intimidating._

I looked ahead of me, seeing the senior and my group a few feet ahead of me, and there were more of these mascots sitting in that room too. Each randomly in a corner or spot. The one I brushed by was against the wall, right by the doorway we came in from. They all looked inactive, just like the yellow one.

He began to explain he found and took these from a shut, abandoned place that’s been closed for 20 years now. It was a place like McDonald’s in the 90’s, or Chuck E Cheese. He said it was called Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, and was quite popular at the time. But due to an incident with children going missing at the place, it’s gotten shed under a negative light, and was quickly closed down. These mascots were the highlight of the place, and have been left there to decay for the next 20 years. Until he found them and took them here for a restoration process.

He presented us these mascots. In the room, there was a bear called Freddy Fazbear, a rabbit called Bonnie, the chick called Chica (I could sort of hear some people in the group assuming she was a duck, or just referring to her as a bird) and a fox called Foxy the Pirate. He said he’s been focused on restoring them, and while he made great progress on all of them, only the bear had gotten fully restored as of now, which was what the senior wanted to show and have a little celebration about.

He looked practically brand new. If taken in account he’s been left to dust for 20 years, that’s an impressive work from the gentleman’s part. The others weren’t fully restored, but didn’t look too bad off.

Bonnie was missing the front of his face, but otherwise he looked like he went through some good makeover too. Foxy looked just as functional, but the mascot suit was missing parts which exposed his metallic endoskeleton and innards, especially his lower legs and left hand (he didn’t have a right one, it was a hook instead.) Chica looked like she just needed a bit of a paint job on her beak and lower legs (the orange of them had shed in some spots revealing a rusty red surface,) as well as on the cupcake she held—which had a small hole on the top of it and looked like it once had something there, like a straw or candle, perhaps a little hat?

Suddenly it dawned on me. I had this gut feeling I had seen these characters or their designs before, just couldn’t for the life of me grasp under what context, or when. Do you know that feeling that you sometimes watched this one cartoon on TV back when Saturday Mornings were a thing, as a kid, then as an adult you come across an episode or snippet of it, and you _know_ you saw that before as a kid, but don’t have the actual memory of doing so? That’s more or less how I felt.

Maybe I have been to Freddy’s as a kid a couple times before it closed? Wouldn’t surprise me if I did—I grew up to that point where it’s a little hard to remember your childhood. The whole thing about the missing kids made me feel kind of uneasy, questioning if I wanted to remember being there at all.

I scooted a little to catch up with my group even though we weren’t far off. The group and the senior began to chat, as the man seemed to have ideas about what to do with or for these mascots—he did mention the idea of having a ride based on the fox. Neat, but probably would cost an amount that I felt scared to even deduce—I’ll be terrorized by student loans soon, spare me please.

The chat evolved to something more trivial and mundane, and it felt all these people had far better affinity with each other than I did with any of them.

That feeling of inadequacy returned. But this time it really made me question my place in that bunch, how much of a friend I was considered to any of these people, or if I was just an acquaintance at best. I felt alienated and like I didn’t belong there, like I was intruding and would be further of an intruder if I tried talking my way in. I felt it would be disrespectful, even.

So I sat back and put on my earphones to listen to some tunes from my phone at a low volume in case anyone spoke to me. I didn’t wanna shut anyone out, I just wanted to give them more privacy to talk.

I would always listen to tunes like that when in the bus going to or coming from college, it made the ride flash by, and helped me stay calm when going for a big test or exam day. It makes time fly and the environment turns into white noise to me.

After who knows how long it’s been in the clouds of music-induced thoughts and daydreaming, I check the time on my phone screen again and that’s when I notice.

... The chatter had become dead silent and no general presence of anyone was felt.

I looked up and realized the group and the senior had left, likely resumed touring and having not noticed that I hadn’t tagged along, while I also not noticing they going. It was only me, and these... robot mascots.

Oh no. This was exactly what I was worrying about earlier! I thought if I kept my music at low volume I’d be able to remain aware of my surroundings!

If this was a horror movie, I sure would be that one dumbass who dies first.

I looked to my left at the direction the group previously was, seeing a doorway ahead at the end of the room, presumably the way they went, but I couldn’t hear a peep or rustle of them, so they must be pretty far off now. Lovely…

I try to mull over my options.

Look around for my group.  
Wait here in case they or someone else come over.  
Try to remember all the path we took up to here and try to go back to the exit.

Before I could run my mind through any other possible option or consider any of those I have thought, I suddenly felt like I wasn’t as alone as it seemed. But before I could even make sense of the sensation, I heard a voice, male and deep, sounding slightly synthetic and just lightly strained like it came from someone who hasn’t said a word in a _very long_ time, but at the same time it was strong. Someone… something… _who wasn’t human._

####  **_“ C h a r l i e . ”_ **

It sent a chill over my spine, I felt that knot in the pit of my stomach, and my body froze in place. I couldn’t even command my head to look back from the doorway by my left. My arms remained rigid by my sides.

Nobody has called me ‘Charlie’ in many, many years. I don’t even remember the last time I heard that nickname, all I know is that it was somewhere in my childhood.

Even without looking, I felt a solid presence suddenly by my right, _right_ by my side. Like _less than inches_ away from me and just out of my sight. I felt legit paralyzed by the sheer fear it struck me. Heck, I think I could even feel the warmth of _breathing_ brushing against the skin of my right cheek.

I couldn’t tell if I was shaking despite my fear-stricken rigid body or not. I probably was.

The presence wouldn’t leave. Sure it probably had been mere seconds for real, but for me time flow felt like it was in slow-motion. The chilling knot in my stomach tightened more with each passing moment, my brain commanding, _screaming_ in my head, for my body to move or at least look who or what had so uncomfortably placed itself close into my personal space. But my muscles just wouldn’t oblige.

This felt like an eternity, but probably wasn’t longer than three seconds, when I gathered enough courage (or foolishness, I really don’t know what it was) to move my head to my right and look at who was making me such a scary company.

Like when I first entered this room in my group, I met with someone who towered over me by an unthinkable margin. _Looming_ over me, even. But unlike with the yellow chick, it was looking down directly at _me_. He was _aware. **Alive.**_

It was the bear. Freddy. He definitely wasn’t positioned here to begin with, he was more to the middle of the room near the wall. He definitely moved.

The further fear that struck me in that moment, I can’t find words to describe. I felt my heart pounding in my ribcage, despite my still body. I felt like there was a scream coming, but literally no sound would come up past my throat.

His blue eyes, despite non-organic, had an intense and fixed gaze at me—it made me feel vulnerable as if he could look straight through me, directly into my soul or whatever I have in me. I felt like he knew all my secrets, just by gazing.

He began to move. He moved his arms towards me, and my mind’s panic skyrocketed, and yet it wasn’t enough to convince my body to. freaking. move.

I felt his heavy arms by my sides, then wrap them around me, pulling me close to him, I couldn’t even fully process what was going on. I felt my front, and side of my face, flat and mildly smothered against his brown synthetic plush short fur. He could seriously snap my spine and crush my bones like that with more pressure, I’m sure of it!

But, no pain was felt. No, wait. The robotic bear was… _hugging me._

I try my damned best to make sense of it, but instead it strikes me down with a range of emotions that at first contact only further puzzled me.

I felt my eyes tear up with a choke in my throat, my expression narrow. Was I THAT touch or affection-starved?? No, no, it wasn’t that simple.

I felt… nostalgic, with a touch of déjà vu. I felt like I had time-traveled back to my childhood years that I didn’t even remember so clearly now. Something in this bear felt… _familiar._ Right. Like I belonged right there, right now.

_Why?_

I felt another moving presence. Trying to look over, I saw Bonnie right next to us—he looked completely functional and like he could see well, despite missing his face, where you could see his endoskeleton head inside. I think he spoke, but for some reason my mind didn’t register his words (or maybe he couldn't talk comprehensively without a face.) He just, joined in.

Now I was being hug-sandwiched by these two.

I began to cry more while I just stood there between them.

I felt like I was being hugged by people I knew or was supposed to know.

Do you know that feeling when you have someone in your childhood you were great friends with, and for whatever reason (or just life in general) you two fell out of touch with each other, then decades later you two re-encounter each other, as adults, and it’s been so long you even don’t immediately recognize them? Being hugged by someone you knew but hadn’t seen in ages?

 _ **'Meeting an old friend for the first time.'**_ That's how I felt.

It’s like I had, by sheer luck, found a bunch of people I knew as a kid and hadn’t seen or heard of ever since.

Yes.

Yes, I have been to Freddy’s before as a child. I now _know_ I have.

I thought back on what the senior said about the place, and when I recalled his words about the incident with missing kids, I felt my cry intensify as I rested in animatronic arms, this time I knew I was shaking.

I felt myself belong right there more than I did with the group I was with.

I think Chica and Foxy were approaching us as well by then, but I just couldn’t see clearly past the stardust of tears in my eyes now.

I let out a soft sob. I had the sensation that I was in the embrace of people I missed long and intensely, and just didn’t consciously know it.

This was surreal, like my heart knew something that my mind didn’t or wasn’t sure of. But my heart knew, unequivocally. Knew who were these animatronics were. Not by name, not by face. By what they had inside them, invisible and abstract, that struck such a strong range of emotions in me, that I won’t forget so soon.

These _kids_ mascots. Freddy Fazbear. Bonnie the Bunny, Chica the Chicken. Foxy the Pirate.

_These were my friends._

**_These are my friends._ **


End file.
